Dakota Johnson Weighs in on Nepo Baby Debate: “It’s lame”

Nepotism is kind of the way it goes as far as show business is concerned. And it's always been that way.

But for better or worse, everything old is new again thanks to TikTok, and when content creators happened to notice that young actors with last names like Apatow, Depp and Kravitz were [checking Wikipedia] the kids of other famous people…

Oh, watch out, brother. And sister. And daughter, etc. The "nepo baby" conversation was on. 

Though, to be fair, the foundation for the "Hmph, wonder how they got that role" scoff was laid a century ago (enter the O.G. Barrymore siblings, dominating the silver screen since 1913), so the conversation wasn't exactly starting. Rather, the topic went very, very viral as the realization that seemingly everyone was related to somebody spread like wildfire on social media.

But as Tom Hanks pointed out after son Truman Hanks played his character's younger self in A Man Called Otto, they're basically like a multigenerational group of plumbers.

photosStars & Their Mini-Me Kids

"It's the family business," the two-time Oscar winner told Reuters. "This is what we've been doing forever. It's what all of our kids grew up in. We have four kids…and if we were a plumbing supply business or if we ran the florists shop down the street, the whole family would be putting in time at some point even if it was just inventory at the end of the year."

Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

And as Lily-Rose Depp noted in a 2022 Elle interview, you don't book jobs if you're not any good, regardless of who your parents are. 

Naturally, the Internet diagnosed that she was suffering from a lack of self-awareness because she dared write a check that banked on her own talent. So began the clamor for stars like Lily-Rose to just admit that they were lucky. 

Read on to see what celebrities of all ages, be they parent or child (or both!), have said about Hollywood nepotism and all the "nepo babies" in their midst:

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This story was first published on Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023 at 12 a.m. PT.